Why in the Modern World the Future is Replaced by the Past: is History Coming Back?

In the last two or three decades, there has been a progressive increase in interest in history. Scientists see the reasons for this in the political situation, the growth of nationalist sentiments, and “memory wars.” The article proposes a hypothesis according to which the causes of the origins of this phenomenon lie much deeper: in global changes in human culture related to ideas about time, changes in views on the role of the past, as well as the relationship between the past and the present and the possibility of predicting the future. History is being replaced by historical memory, the functionality of which lies mainly in the sphere of historical politics and social practices. Hence, the paradoxical nature of what is happening: the role of historical science is diminishing, and the role of historical knowledge is growing. The current information situation and total digitalization play a huge role here. Thanks to them, the past and the future turn into an “expanded present,” and historical knowledge becomes a giant palimpsest that is constantly being rewritten. Hence, the trend towards the repoliticization of history, calls for the restoration of its ethical component, its role as a “teacher of life,” the legal and ethical relevance of historical knowledge, which acts as an argument in the accusations and justifications of countries and peoples (this process is called the legitimization of history). The conjuncture for the sake of “correct” modern politics is no longer considered a discrediting circumstance for historians. On the contrary, historians are charged with the duty to act as judges or lawyers at the trial of descendants over the past. All these trends, in the context of the end of the temporal regime of modernity and universal digitalization, lead to the blurring of the distance between the past and the present and the transformation of history into an “expanded present,” because it is the goals and objectives of the present that determine the endless revision of the past, rewriting history. This conclusion is important for understanding the ongoing processes. The modern growth of retrotopia, the changing role of historical knowledge, the trend towards the repoliticization and rehabilitation of the presentism is not a negative political conjuncture that can be corrected nor can its onset be contained. This is the result of global trends in the field of culture in the broadest sense of the word. Ultimately, they can lead to the rebirth of historical science and historical knowledge into a new meta-system that differs from the role of the history of the modern era that is familiar to us.

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